Coca-Cola laptop theft could have compromised info for 74,000 -WSJ

January 24, 2014|Reuters

Jan 24 (Reuters) - Beverage maker Coca-Cola Co onFriday said company laptops had been stolen from itsheadquarters in Atlanta and could have compromised informationof about 74,000 people, according to a report in The Wall StreetJournal.

A spokeswoman for the company said the laptops were stolenby a former employee responsible for maintenance and disposal ofequipment, the business daily reported. The company on Dec. 10learned that personal information was stored on the laptopsafter recovering them, the newspaper said. ()

Coca-Cola could not immediately be reached for commentoutside regular U.S. business hours.

The world's largest soft drink company has alerted domesticand Canadian employees about the security breach through a memo,the Journal reported.

Personal details such as social security numbers, driver'slicense numbers and credit-card information may have beencompromised, the Journal said.

The company, which has managed to recover the laptops, whichwere not encrypted, contacted law enforcement authorities, whilesaying it could not confirm whether the information has beenmisused, the newspaper reported.

The company's disclosure about this possible security breachcomes after Target Corp, the third-largest U.S.retailer, last month said hackers stole data from up to 40million credit and debit cards of shoppers who visited itsstores during the first three weeks of the holiday season.